Allyship in Action: James Talarico Can Prove He’s Not Racist by Ending His Campaign Against Black Excellence

If this boy-faced white man really cares about diversity, why is he trying to take jobs away from BIPOC pioneers?

James Talarico, the boy-faced state lawmaker running for U.S. Senate in Texas, insisted he wasn’t racist on Monday after a TikTok user accused him of denigrating former congressman Colin Allred (D., Texas) as a ”mediocre black man.”

Actions speak louder than words.

Talarico, a white man, can’t credibly claim to support racial justice while actively trying to stop Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D., Texas)—whom he recently praised as a “formidable, intelligent black woman”—from earning a well-deserved promotion to the U.S. Senate.

The facts speak for themselves. If Talarico actually thought Crockett was qualified to serve, he wouldn’t be running against her. It’s that simple. He’s running because he thinks he’s more qualified, which is absurd because he clearly isn’t. It only makes sense if you consider “being a white man” the preeminent qualification for higher office.

Alas, there is no other way to explain Talarico’s actions over the past few months. If he really believed in promoting diversity to overcome America’s “painful legacy of racism,” he wouldn’t have stayed in the race after Crockett launched her campaign in December. If he wasn’t a devoted white supremacist, he wouldn’t have entered the race at all.

By the time Talarico announced his primary campaign in September, Allred had already been running for several months. Allred was the one who—in principled deference to Crockett’s black womanhood—lived up to his values by quitting the race and giving her the space she needed to pursue her dreams.

Yet Talarico had the audacity to smear Allred as “mediocre.” Of course, he insisted he was referring to Allred’s “method of campaigning,” but that is arguably even more problematic than disparaging him on the basis of race.

The scandal erupted earlier this week when Morgan Thompson, a black woman from Dallas, posted a video on TikTok. She claimed that Talarico told her in a private meeting that he “signed up to run against a mediocre black man” before Crockett announced her campaign.

In response, Talarico implied that Thompson could not be trusted to faithfully characterize the substance of their private conversation. In a statement that reeked of white male privilege, Talarico claimed to “deeply care about the impact” of his words even as he readily accused a black woman of peddling lies.

There’s only one way Talarico can prove he’s not a racist: Stop trampling on the dreams of BIPOC pioneers. He should do the right thing by dropping out immediately and urging all of his supporters to vote for Crockett. In doing so, he would be following the noble example set by Matthew Dowd, the former MSNBC contributor and self-described “renowned thought-leader.”

Dowd ran for lieutenant governor of Texas in 2021. Things started getting awkward when his critics resurfaced a 2018 op-ed he wrote urging his fellow “white male Christians” to “take it upon ourselves to step back and give more people who don’t look like us access to the levers of power.” Dowd dropped out after just two months. “I do not want to be the one who stands in the way of the greater diversity we need in politics,” he said in a statement.

Spoken like a true ally.

It’s a standard Talarico could still choose to meet. The clock is ticking.